Today started with Captain arising a full hour early, shaking out all the sails, and zoom! We were off! After our 174 mile noon to noon run yesterday, the bar was set exceptionally high. Argh! These days it feels like our former Sweet Dream of cruising and enjoying the journey has turned into a nightmare sailing marathon where we are always pushing to either “keep up with the pack”, or stay ahead of another boat. After the morning radio net Lars decided we would aim for an arrival in Coco Keeling in just four days time. Oy Vey! This is from a Captain who is “not racing” I quickly did the math and realised that would require 166 mile days steady for four days. Fortunately our noon to noon run today was only 160. Already an hour short. So moving into plan B, aim for daylight arrival at Cocos in five days. This decision should have removed some of the pressure, but late in the day Captain was fretting over the boat coming up from behind us that he did not want to pass us! I gently tried to point out that, a. We were not racing, and b. We were not even going to the same place!! To no avail. I signed up for a delightful cruise in company, but was redirected otherwise. At least the food is good. I fixed up a fettuccine picatta to put the leftover fish in. Really yummy! And speaking of fish, the electric fish parade in the water has been stunning tonight! There was a whole school of some really big fish lit up like Christmas swimming next to the boat. Very pretty indeed!
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